The Interlagos Blue Appreciation Thread

[usdmej]

I've never really shared, but it's been long enough now so story time...

wow what a read/journey that was, and probably the wildest transition of color choices too lol

[DoubleSidedTape]

I hardly ever have them both clean at the same time. The X5 is deep sea blue.

[Casa de Mesa]

I'm actually starting a new e46m3 project (I have the car and a boat load of the parts) and it's going to be pretty wild. I'll start a build thread here shortly. Sadly, it won't be using the interior though...so I'll just keep it in storage for now.

Can't wait to follow along! I've visited your build thread multiple times for insight and inspiration. Looking forward to what's coming next!

[liam821]

Thanks for the story. Beautiful car- it's a bummer to look at those pictures but happy to hear you stayed in the platform.

Looking forward to a future thread of yours where you unveil your McDonalds sponsored car.

I know, super bummer. I probably should have saved it and fixed it...but at the time e46m3's weren't all that expensive and the accident caused a massive hit to its value. My insurance company agreed to pay market value (EAG prices because of the miles) so it made the most sense to get another one. My PY car is really nice, but its not an IB/Imola!

I'm actually starting a new e46m3 project (I have the car and a boat load of the parts) and it's going to be pretty wild. I'll start a build thread here shortly. Sadly, it won't be using the interior though...so I'll just keep it in storage for now.

[mtpktz]

Thanks for the story. Beautiful car- it's a bummer to look at those pictures but happy to hear you stayed in the platform.

Looking forward to a future thread of yours where you unveil your McDonalds sponsored car.

[Mr. Wolfe]

I remember that!!!

Mr. Wolfe

[liam821]

I was surprised to only see 3 factory IB/IR NA cars as well. I wonder if liam821 's was one of the 3 - I believe it was a low mileage car. Unfortunately it seems that car is RIP.

https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...ead#post109403

Mine was originally Anthracite Impulse Cloth Interior. Still a unicorn spec. ZCP package, slicktop, the only option was xenons, base stereo, and manual cloth interior. It was an SMG car. I bought the car with 17k miles.

I've never really shared, but it's been long enough now so story time... The first owner had custom ordered my car and then stripped the interior and installed a rollbar and replaced the front seats with race seats. The only thing he left was the original front door cards and dash. Sometime between him trading it in and the 2nd owner acquiring it stock impulse interior was swapped back in from another car with many more miles. The seller did not disclose the fact that it didn't have the original interior nor did the BMW dealer happen to mention that when it went in for a PPI. Since the car was in Chicago and I was in Oregon I didn't inspect the car firsthand. I found out what happened once I received the car here in Oregon. To add insult to injury, while the car was shipped in an enclosed trailer because it was the middle of winter, the trailer wasn't completely "sealed" and the shipper had shipped the car with the driver side window down. So the whole interior was soaked and covered in road grime.

There was a long thread about it on M3F which really pissed off the 2nd owner - he can go F himself, he deserved it. Other than the interior the car was in pretty good shape for the most part. So I found a completely mint Imola interior from another forum member and swapped it in. I still put a few thousand dollars in maintenance and interior bits to make it basically perfect.

Sadly, the car was destroyed a two thousand miles later. I had started the car and forgot my wallet so I left the car running with the ebrake on and ran back inside to get it. The ebrake didn't hold and it rolled down my driveway backward, I watched in horror as it crashed into a tree. Just over 19,000 total miles.

I bought it back from insurance and parted it out. A lot of the interior bits/suspension/drivetrain bits ended up in my current PY car. The engine went off to an M3F dude on the east coast into his track car. As for the beautiful Imola interior? I still have it...hidden in plastic in my garage. Not sure what I'm going to do with that yet.

[mtpktz]

Mine was swapped to Imola by a previous owner. Interesting to see that only three people ordered theirs that way.

I was surprised to only see 3 factory IB/IR NA cars as well. I wonder if liam821 's was one of the 3 - I believe it was a low mileage car. Unfortunately it seems that car is RIP.

https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...ead#post109403

[DoubleSidedTape]

Mine was swapped to Imola by a previous owner. Interesting to see that only three people ordered theirs that way.

[SQ13]

Sheesh

[mtpktz]

Great information. Would love to see this breakdown with all colors. My understanding with my old car with Platinum interior is that there were two that had Platinum. The difference is that mine had Platinum stitching as well while the other had the light Ecru stitching. I broke even on that car when I sold it. Had it for a year I believe. It sold to Ryan Friedman motors, he sold it to someone awhile later, that owner hardly had it and it’s with some guy in Minnesota if I’m not mistaken. Curious about what the value would be today.

Great information. Would love to see this breakdown with all colors. My understanding with my old car with Platinum interior is that there were two that had Platinum. The difference is that mine had Platinum stitching as well while the other had the light Ecru stitching. I broke even on that car when I sold it. Had it for a year I believe. It sold to Ryan Friedman motors, he sold it to someone awhile later, that owner hardly had it and it’s with some guy in Minnesota if I’m not mistaken. Curious about what the value would be today.

Interesting - thanks for the history and the details on your car. Either way, they're both 1 of 1 since yours is a manual (and slicktop) and the other is SMG, allegedly. Assuming it's been maintained in the same condition as when you owned it with miles in the low 20s, I'd guess it would fetch north of $100K with ease.

As for other colors, Interlagos is a much simpler task because it was only offered as a ZCP coupe. Here is the breakdown for all ZCP cars by exterior color for NA (BL93):



I was able to collect most interior data for all Silver Grey (A08) NA coupes (includes ZCP & non-ZCP), however, I'm missing numbers for Special Upholstery (Z1XX) and I'm short 31 cars against the total. You can logically reason that those 31 cars are Z1XX cars but I'd want confirmation before posting a similar table as the Interlagos data. SickFinga periodically checks into the thread with answers to inquiries - the last update I saw from him was early in 2022 but there are hundreds of others asking and it's not an E46 M3 specific thread. The Interlagos data was compiled from his responses over the last 9 years - thankfully the numbers reconcile to the total (although there's a little uncertainty about the Manual/SMG split for G8AT as an inquiry was originally answered 28/8 respectively and later was answered 8/28; the 36 total is consistent, though).

[Duck360198]

Great information. Would love to see this breakdown with all colors. My understanding with my old car with Platinum interior is that there were two that had Platinum. The difference is that mine had Platinum stitching as well while the other had the light Ecru stitching. I broke even on that car when I sold it. Had it for a year I believe. It sold to Ryan Friedman motors, he sold it to someone awhile later, that owner hardly had it and it’s with some guy in Minnesota if I’m not mistaken. Curious about what the value would be today.

[mtpktz]

I compiled some production data for North America Interlagos cars that I think will interest owners (source is SickFinga from maxbimmer):



I was able to confirm 1 of the 2 Special Upholstery (Z1XX) cars as "Special Platinum Nappa Leather" as noted in the cars original Build Sheet. The car was purchased by Duck360198 in 2018 on BaT but he recently posted that he no longer owns it. Pictures can be found in the links below:

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2005-bmw-m3-coupe-18/

https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...718#post112718

The other was identified as "Light Ecru Nappa Leather", but from what I've found via Google, it appears to be the same as the "Special Platinum Nappa Leather".

[02_lsb]

Not my car. Not even remotely near me, but it seems like good money for it. If you’re an east coast buyer and have no feelings toward that interior, we can be friends. Just saying.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/26579408975...mis&media=COPY

[Gt4]

Beautiful - you have quite the E46 collection. Do you still have the Estoril as well?



Paint looks great and love the Cinnamon swap!

I still have the Estoril but both Interlagos are sold.